September 1, 2005
09:00 AM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2005-22

Hubble Makes Movie of Neptune's Dynamic Atmosphere

September 1, 2005: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures the distant blue-green world,
Neptune, and its satellites in this portrait. Astronomers used Hubble’s
assortment of filters to pinpoint high altitude clouds floating above
the methane rich atmosphere. The images have been assembled into a
time-lapse movie revealing the orbital motion of the satellites. The icy
moons seen in this view are Proteus (the brightest), Larissa, Despina,
and Galatea. Neptune had 13 moons at last count. In Roman mythology,
Larsissa and Despina were Neptunes’s daughters.